TECHNICAL BULLETIN
1070
Solving Windows™ Setup Problems
SUMMARY : The WINDOWS environment can be complex to setup, specially if the work station includes CD ROMS, sound cards and network interface cards. This bulletin outlines suggestions to avoid the dreaded Windows GPF (General Protection Fault). The GPF are generally caused by memory conflicts where either two applications attempt to use the same memory space or one application tries to use the wrong memory area.
Most of the suggestions offered here are found in the Microsoft® Windows™ Resource Kit for Operating System Version 3.1. PN 0501531V310 and the Microsoft Windows Windows for Workgroups Resource Kit PN 2071531V311. The resource kits include a book and companion diskettes and are invaluable references to solve Windows setup problems. The resource kits are available through Multima Corporation and in many bookstores.
If you encounter GPF errors while running Windows and NetKeeper® try:
- Check that you have the very latest drivers for your network interface card (NIC). You can obtain the latest drivers directly from the NIC vendor or from vendor’s forums on CompuServe® or other on-line services.
- Check that you have the latest video drivers for your video card. This sounds strange but we have found that video drivers can cause all sorts of problems that have nothing to do with the display.
- It is very important to use the very latest versions of the Novell shell. The latest shells and Netware drivers for windows can be downloaded from CompuServe. You may need to update LSL.COM, IPXODI.COM, the card driver, your VLM components and netware.drv.
- You can use NetKeeper to audit all your stations and check for the versions of your network shell components. NetKeeper can also help you to distribute the new components.
- You must use HIGHMEM.SYS, EMM386.EXE and SMARTDRV from the same set. They should all be from DOS or from WINDOWS. Don’t mix components from the DOS and the WINDOWS directories. Use the set with the latest date.
- Don’t use share, use vshare. (Config.sys) SHARE has many, many documented bugs concerning networks and windows. Windows for Workgroups installs VSHARE as do all Microsoft Office applications. You install vshare in the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI :
DEVICE=VSHARE.386
VSHARE.386 should be in your windows SYSTEM directory
- You cannot use VSHARE from WFW 3.11 in windows 3.11. The version for windows 3.11 is 3.11.0.401, this version comes with most MS Office products or you can download it from the MS BBS at 206-936-6735 Once you install VSHARE, delete SHARE from your config.sys
- Check that you have properly excluded ranges in memory that are in use by network cards, sound cards or other peripherals. Try starting windows as : WIN /D:XSV
- The X parameter tells windows to exclude the A000-EFFF range to check for memory conflicts.
- The S parameter disables SystemROMBreakpoint and is the equivalent of inserting the line
SystemROMBreakpoint=FALSE
in the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI
- The V parameter disables virtual IRQ’s and is the equivalent of inserting the line:
VirtualHDIRQ=OFF
in the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI
Tip : To check that you do not have a video memory conflict, exclude the entire video area and test. You need to exclude the range A000-CFFF, for example :
DEVICE=d:\WINDOWS\emm386.exe x=a000-cfff NOEMS
- Check that the NIC setup in NET.CFG agrees with the EMM386 exclude areas and memory size. You need to check the documentation for the card. If the card is using memory space you need to add to the EMM386.EXE (in config.sys) the corresponding exclude range x=D000-D200. For testing purposes you may also use x=D000-Dfff this will exclude the full D segment of 64K bytes. Insufficient exclude ranges are the most likely cause of problems.
- Remove the third party screen savers. We have seen quite a few compatibility problems with non MS screen savers. You need to delete the screen saver and all its components from the SYSTEM.INI file. There are components in the boot and in the 386Enh section.
- If you don’t already have one, purchase MS’s Windows Resource Kit for Windows 3.11 there is also a similar book for WFW 3.11. This book contains most of the setup hints included in this letter.
- Disable the write cache in SMARTDRV. To disable the write cache for drive C :
SMARTDRV C
note that there is no ":" after the C
This syntax disables the write cache but maintains the read cache.
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